Who I am?
- SW Developer
- Environmental Scientist
- Open Source Advocate
Computer Science
Bridging the Gap
Environmental Science
Monitoring and Adapting to Change on the Coast
NOAA
- Monitoring = Sort-Long Term, Weather, Oceanography, ...
- Adapting = Policy, Science, Boots on the Ground, ...
- Change = Natural, Human Influence, ...
ERMA at OR&R
- Monitoring = Real-Time monitoring
- Adapting = Staying agile (people, tools, ...)
- Change = The unexpected
The ERMA application and team
The Deepwater Horizon experience
Our little project...
Environmental
Response
Management
Application
DWH - Statistics
- 11 men perished
- 200+ million gallons of oil spilled
- 580+ miles of shoreline oiled
- 1.70+ million gallons dispersants applied
- 400+ controlled burns
- 4+ million feet of containment boom and 9+ million feet of sorbent boom
DWH and ERMA
- Over 180 Individual Federal/State GIS Staff
- 30-40 specifically ERMA (up from 4 normally)
- 3 ERMA developers
The ORR Continuum
Response > Assessment > Restoration
ERMA Shines
- Less than 48 hours to deploy
- Scalable – 1400+ response users, 16,000+ layers (DWH)
- 25,000+ layers today
- Nimble – over 850 code commits in DWH first year
- Public ERMA – over 20 million hits in 24 hours!
Response > Assessment > Restoration
(Where we are now)
What is NRDA?
www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/assessment
Natural Resource Damage Assessment
- Field data collection
- TWGs (technical working groups)
- Archival, aggregation, and visualization of data
- Support ongoing court cases
Response > Assessment > Restoration
Future project planning and tracking
National Coverage - Regional ERMA's
Continued push toward multi-agency
cooperation and data sharing
Scaling in new ways
(leveraging the cloud)
So how/why does this matter to you?
The nuts and bolts might not...
the philosophy does
Focus on small teams of experts
Leverage open tools,
but own the deployment
- This gives us the benefit of a large community of developers
- This gives us the freedom modify and adapt when needed
Utilize open data
and open standards
- We use OGC standards based data transfer
- We use OSM (Open Street Map)
- Browser tech that is compatible with older browsers (USCG)
What is making ERMA successful?
- Small distributed team... hand picked experts
- Core team at OR&R - Scientists and data managers
- On-site training/participation
- Unique Features:
- Dynamic web-based upload
- Full styling control by users
- Fine grained permissions - One interface, many agencies
- Make ERMA easy to use
Doing more with less
(This is a good investment for NOAA)
ERMA's Future?
- Scale
- Deep integration across agencies
- Mobile
- Stand-Alone instances with sync
Future of response?
- There will be more spills
- There will be more hurricanes
- There will be more tsunamis
- Things will be BIGGER and more frequent
Key to the future?
- Build nimble, open, and scalable tools...
- Talk together via open protocols...
- The right data (both open and closed)...
- The right dedicated people behind them...
Dr. Amy Merten, Spatial Data Branch Chief
amy.merten@noaa.gov
Michele Jacobi, ERMA Technical Team Lead
michele.jacobi@noaa.gov
George Graettinger, Gulf of Mexico Regional Lead
george.graettinger@noaa.gov
Benjamin Shorr
benjamin.shorr@noaa.gov
Kari Sheets
kari.sheets@noaa.gov
Jill Bodnar
jill.bodnar@noaa.gov
Funding Sources
Coastal Response Research Center
US EPA Region II
U.S. Coast Guard
NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration
Coastal Storms Program
DOI/Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
Oil Spill Recovery Institute
Developers
Aaron Racicot, Z-Pulley
Chander Ganesan, OTG
Robert St. Lawrence, UNH
Phillip Collins, UNH
David Bitner, DBSpatial
Dan Little, DBSpatial
Allison Bailey, SoundGIS